Bava Kama 86 - 92 - Issue #1510 - 16 Sivan 5754 / 20 - 26 May
1994

This issue is dedicated in memory of J. Joshua Goldberg Z'L

A Blind Sage and a Bar Mitzvah

Who

deserves greater credit

?

One who fulfills G-d's commandments although he is not obligated.

One who does so when he is obligated.

A blind sage, Rabbi Yosef, had different ideas on this subject
at various stages in his life. At first he thought that someone
who voluntarily fulfills a mitzvah deserves more credit.
He therefore looked forward to a decision being reached by the
Sages to uphold the controversial opinion of Rabbi Yehuda that
a blind man is exempt from the obligation to fulfill positive
commands. He even pledged to make a feast for the Torah scholars
when such a decision should be forthcoming to celebrate his opportunity
to fulfill so many commandments voluntarily.

But Rabbi Yosef had a change of heart when he heard the declaration
of the great Rabbi Chanina that one who is obligated deserves
more credit for fulfillment than his voluntary counterpart. The
former must contend with the anxiety and tension natural for one
concerned whether he has properly fulfilled his obligation while
the latter has the relaxed ability to comfort himself with the
thought that he is exempt anyway.

Rabbi Yosef therefore pledged to make his aforementioned feast
for Torah scholars if a decision were reached by the Sages to
reject Rabbi Yehuda's opinion and to thus make him obligated and
deserving of greater credit.

Bava Kama 87a

This principle is cited as a source for the celebration
surrounding a youngster becoming a Bar Mitzvah, for it is at that
point in his life that he is transformed from a child with no
obligation - only the chinuch training for the future which is
imposed on his parents - into a man with obligations and an opportunity
to gain greater credit for each mitzvah.

How Great Gratitude?

"Don't throw
dirt into a well from whose water you have drunk."

This is a bit of folk wisdom regarding the importance
of gratitude. When the Sage Rabbah bar Mori was challenged by
the Sage Rava to identify a scriptural source for this approach
he referred him to the Torah's command (Devarim 23:8-9)
to allow a third-generation Egyptian convert to Judaism to marry
any Jew. We are directed to not hold the Egyptian "in total
abomination" (even though his ancestors at one stage cast
Jewish male babies into the river) "because you were a stranger
in his land" (your ancestors enjoyed their hospitality when
Yacov and his family came there in a time of famine).